NGO AND MASS MEDIA REPRESENTATIVES APPEALED FOR MEETING WITH AVAZ ZEYNALLI

On April 4th a group of human right activists and journalists sent an
appeal to the below-mentioned state figures asking for a permission to
meet with the imprisoned editor-in-chief of Khural newspaper Avaz
Zeynalli: Minister of Justice Fikrat Mammadov, head of the
Penitentiary Service Madat Guliyev , General Prosecutor Zakir Garalov,
head of the Anti-Corruption Fight Office Kamran Aliyev, and Human
Rights Commissioner Elmira Suleymanova, www.xural.com website
reported.

To note, Avaz Zeynalli is currently held at Baku investigative prison.

The appeal reads: “By signing this appeal we state that the arrest of
Avaz Zeynalli is illegal, as it was based on a single appeal by Gular
Ahmadova and a compact disc presented by her that can not be evaluated
as evidence. Local community representatives have not been allowed to
meet with Zeynalli for already five months, because it is deemed as a
factor which can impact the investigation. But journalistic
investigations into Zeynalli’s case concluded that his arrest is
illegal and groundless, and these factors are just an excuse to
prevent local community representatives from meeting with him. But the
representatives of the organizations that are directly defending Avaz
Zeynalli’s rights intend to meet with him to find answer to some
questions that are unclear for the media”.

The appeal was signed by the following persons: Mehman Aliyev
(director of Turan Information Agency), Emin Huseynov (the chairman of
the IRFS), Novella Jafaroglu (head of the Azerbaijan Human Rights
Defense Center), Seadet Benenyarli (Azerbaijan National Group of
International Human Rights Community), Seide Gojamanli (chief of the
Bureau for the protection of human rights and legislation), Leyla
Yunus (head of the Peace and Democracy Institute), Anar Mahmudoglu
(journalist), Afgan Mukhtarli (journalist), Shahvalad Chobanoglu
(journalist), Khadija Ismayilova (correspondent of the Azerbaijani
Bureau of the Radio Liberty), Nemet Huseynli (correspondent of Bizim
Yol newspaper), Irada Jafarova (chairwoman of the Enlightenment on
Human Rights Public Union), Arzu Abdullayeva (Azerbaijan National
Committee of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly), Shirin Jafarli (founder of
the newspaper Gundam Khabar), Anar Mammadli (Election Monitoring and
Democracy Studies Center), Azer Hesret (journalist), Ganimat Zahid
(editor-in-chief of Azadlig newspaper), Seyyare Heyderova (human
rights activist), Rashid Hajili (head of Media Rights Institute) and
Melahet Zeynalli (correspondent of Khural newspaper).